Practical Cell Phones to Complement Mac OS X?

Silas asks: "It's about time to trade up my Samsung A500 (a robust flip-phone that has served me well) to a new cell phone, and I'm looking for recommendations. I'd like something pretty no-nonsense that does the basics very well (sound quality, intuitive button placement and UI, compact physical design -- no camera, and no annoying ringtones) but I'm also ready to start connecting my phone to other parts of my life. In particular, I'd like to find something compatible with iSync on Mac OS X Tiger for addressbook and calendar stuff, and I wouldn't mind trying out the bluetooth madness for proximity login/keychain auth, etc. I've also had the ability to connect my Powerbook to the net through the phone with Sprint PCS's Vision program and a USB cable from The Shack, and preserving that capability would be nice, but is less important in a world of hotspots, and I'm fine with switching carriers. Any help is much appreciated, even if it's just brand/category generalizations."

Comments

Start with phones listed as supported by Clicker

[Leknor]

I'd start with the supported feature list of Salling Clicker: http://homepage.mac.com/jonassalling/Shareware/Cli cker/

You don't have to use Salling Clicker, there are alternatives, but I'm not familiar with their web sites.

Motorola Phones should all work

[GusherJizmac]

I have an A630 and while it (like other Mot phones) requirs the USB sync cable to sync (available cheap on eBay), I believe that you can use it as a modem via bluetooth (certainly with the USB cable).

Did you look at Apple's page?

[pauljlucas]

Here.

iSync Supported Phones

[mr_rattles]

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/isync/devices .html

List of phones "officially" supported by iSync, though there's a bunch more you can get working by hacking the MetaClasses.plist property file in iSync.app.

Re:iSync Supported Phones

[JHromadka]

The Sony Ericsson phones offer great compatibility. I have used the T68i, the T610, and now a K700 with iSync. All were great, and all complement the look of my PowerBook. I prefer to make headshot photos on the Mac and xfer them over Bluetooth to the K700 so I can use better looking photos. The camera is sufficient for a cellphone, but if you want something more, SE just released the K750. Unfortunately, iSync doesn't work natively with the K750 without modifying some files.

Tiger 10.4.1 supports bluetooth fine.

[rdunnell]

If you have a Motorola phone, almost all of them work fine with bluetooth under Tiger 10.4.1. I couldn't get my Razr or V551 to work with 10.4 out of the box but after I upgraded to the latest patch iSync works beautifully with either Bluetooth or USB cable. However, 10.3 and earlier do require USB as you mentioned.

That being said, to the original poster I'd recommend a Razr or a V551, I have had good luck with both, depends on how much money you want to spend (or not spend - v551 are a lot less expensive).

For Bluetooth compatability

[Hast]

The is one resource for information on Bluetooth compatability and that is the list of qualified products on the Bluetooth.org qualification program site. (It's a bitch to find via links though.) One search and then a click on the "details" will tell you exactly which profiles that device is qualified for. If you have multiple devices, just check that they match up wrt profiles and you are good to go.

Why they don't advertice that list to help consumers is beyond me. (Probably because it's a lot of work to figure out.) BTW you should look for devices which support the Sync profile. Some devices (eg Nokia) implement their own sync system on top of serial port profile instead, that works too but it's not as "clean" and requires special PC software.

On topics of phones I'd ignore the ringtones part, just don't use annoying ringtones. (Mine is always set to silent.) Personally I like Sony-Ericsson phones, but that's just me. (They tend to work well with Bluetooth as well.)

Many newer phones support Java MIDP (J2ME) which might be fun if you like programming and want to add a little to your own phone.

Sony-Ericsson

[meatball_mulligan]

I've had great experiences with the two Ericsson phones I've used with my my Mac: a T68i and z600. I really can't go on enough about my z600. It's small, but tough and sturdy (have you seen the 'buttons' on the Razr!?). It works flawlessly with iSync, Salling Clicker, the web, and OS X's Bluetooth File Exchange. It's gonna take a lot for me to give up this one.

As someone mentioned earlier, no matter which phone you end up getting, make sure it's on the Clicker compatability list. Clicker kicks ass.

m.m.

RAZR

[msired]

Amazon has the RAZR on special. $100 after a $150 mail in rebate. Cingular only. I got mine last week and Tiger recognized it right off.

Re:Quick and easy

[EggyToast]

Yeah, that's a weird thing about Samsungs it seems. My girlfriend's is the same way -- not a single normal ringtone. There's one that starts normally... then this voice says "Helloooo!!" and a techno song starts with the ring and the "helloooo!"

I was pleased when I discovered that my Motorola phone had normal ringtones. I was even more pleased to discover that all I had to do to get new ringtones was point the web browser at a .mid file or .wav and ta da, new ringtone. Now it's the prelude from FF6, which is both pretty, non-obtrusive, and sounds like a ring. Geek points, too, I suppose.

My (free) motorola also synch's up just fine with iSync via USB, although it has no bluetooth and I've never tried online/computer stuff with it.

Sony Ericsson T630

[PinkX]

I have a Sony Ericsson T630 which works flawlessly with MacOS X. Full iSync compatibility for iCal and Address Book.

It has a nice Apple-style touch which looks pretty good next to my PowerBook G4.

Plus there is Romeo (no I'm not its author just a happy user) which is a nice OpenSource app that lets you do all sort of neat things with BlueTooth (remote control for iTunes, DVD, mouse mode, presentation sliding for both Powerpoint and Keynote, volume control, etc.), proximity reaction, caller ID (with a nice bezel and photo support!) and fully AppleScript'able to add support for whatever app you want.

Did I mention it is now GPL software? Althought it's not directly on the site, its sources can be obtained via CVS from SourceForge and it could surely use some help from experienced and skilled ObjC/Cococa coders.

I'd like to take the chance to ask, if anybody knows if it would be possible to use the computer as a sort of headset for the phone, talking with the built-in mic on the Powerbook and listening through its speakers, it'd be a very nice app for which I've googled around with no positive results.

Finally I'd like to comment that I've been trying to make an iPod-like interface for this software to use with the phone integrated menus, which would let you browse the genres/artists/albums database of iTunes. Anyone interested on it could help me giving it a go.

Regards,

nokia 3650

[william_w_bush]

had a 3650 for a few years, and while it is a mediocre phone, it seems great at everything else.

used to have an ipaq set up for autoconnect to tmobile gprs, so i could check email or whatever anywhere without having to dig out the phone. worked great as a failsafe web connection too. fired up isync the other day and it works perfectly, so it may be old but it keeps surprising me.

one thing, it has a really stupid dial pad, so you might want to try the 3660 or so, but s60 phones seem pretty solid from my pov.

love the bt on it.